


Ancient And Terrible Power

by JakeGrey



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Crack Crossover, Gen, Identity Reveal, Light Angst, Poor Adrien, Surprise Ending, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-10 11:25:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15290508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JakeGrey/pseuds/JakeGrey
Summary: The City of Light's resident superheroes have not had a good day, all things considered. The good news is they finally have Hawkmoth's name and address. The bad news is that finding this out cost Marinette her Miraculous, not to mention a few broken bones, and Adrien managed to blow his own cover as well.Fortunately, Tom has an old family secret that might just let them turn this mess around...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a comment on a discussion board, and by the fact that if Tom dyed his hair red he'd look a lot like... Well, that would be a spoiler.

Today, Tom Dupain reflected gloomily, was most certainly a "start drinking at three in the afternoon" sort of day. "I know there were sound reasons for keeping it secret," he said carefully, pouring out four generous measures of brandy and placing them on a tray, "but this isn't how I wanted to find out my daughter was Ladybug."  
  
"I too had hoped we could have this conversation under other circumstances," Master Fu replied wearily. "What did the doctors say?"  
  
"Broken leg, broken and dislocated shoulder, cracked ribs. No head injury, thank Christ. We won't know if there will be any lasting impairment for a while, and they were a little worried about the x-ray on her shoulder, but she'll live. She was in surprisingly good spirits when we left, as well, although that might have been from all the painkillers."  
  
"I'm still going to kill Hawkmoth," Adrien said quietly. It was the first time he'd spoken since they'd brought him here after finding him at the hospital, still transformed and grimly clutching his baton as if expecting Hawkmoth to show up to finish the job. Master Fu had made some hasty introductions in between trying to piece together what had happened, and they'd retreated to the bakery before they could be recognised.  
  
"Adrien," Sabine said gently, "I know you have every right to be furious with your father-"  
  
"I have no father." The calm, flat way he said that was somehow worse than any angry shout.  
  
"Nevertheless, Sabine is right," Fu replied, seemingly undeterred. "Ending the life of any fellow human leaves a mark on the soul, even in defence of the innocent; to be forced to end the life of someone you once loved... No. I've asked an awful lot of you, Adrien, but that burden is one I will _not_ allow someone so young to take up. Besides, I haven't had to break one of my students out of prison in over fifty years, and I'm not ruining my perfect record for the sake of a rank amateur like Gabriel Agreste!"  
  
Adrien briefly wondered if the old man was joking or not, then decided he didn't want to know. "Alright. And for what it's worth, Master, I don't regret it. Giving me the Miraculous was the best thing to ever happen to me."  
  
"That says more about your sperm donor than it does about me, kiddo," Plagg remarked from his perch on the back of the living room couch, with a sad little chuckle. Adrien reached up and gently stroked his kwami between the ears.  
  
They sat in silence for a while. Adrien sipped his brandy cautiously, then apparently his tastebuds gave it the thumbs-up and he knocked back about half of it in one go. Not the smartest way for a young lad to drink the serious stuff when he'd probably never been alowed anything stronger than the occasional _cidre royale_ before dinner until now, but it eased the tension in his posture and put a bit of colour back into his cheeks.  
  
"I know nobody wants to even think about this right now," Sabine said at last, "but we need a plan. And we need something to give us an edge." She looked pointedly at Tom when she said that.  
  
" _Cherie_ , are you sure-?"  
  
"Our daughter is in traction and Adrien's sorry excuse for a father is half-way done prepping a necromantic ritual, Tom. How much more dire does our hour of need have to get?"  
  
"Alright, then. But we're going to be _very_ careful who we hand that stuff out to; I've seen what it can do firsthand." He stood up and went over to a cupboard at the other end of the room.  
  
Master Fu raised a questioning eyebrow. "It seems I am not the only person with secrets to keep."  
  
"Hah! That's putting it mildly, old man." Tom removed a small but heavy steel box from the cupboard and placed it on the coffee table. Its lid was held closed by a huge, heavy padlock, which he unlocked with a key hanging from a chain around his neck. "The village council thought I ought to have this, in case something ever happened to the Chosen. I was hoping it wouldn't be needed, but... Well, here we are." With no little reverence, he removed the lid.   
  
Master Fu's empty tumbler slipped unheeded from his fingers and thudded onto the carpet. "By all the gods and ancestors... I never thought I would even _see_ this, much less be called upon to use it. Surely it cannot be the original?"  
  
"They'd hardly entrust _that_ to a humble baker in downtown Paris," Tom chuckled. "But it _is_ one of the first seven copies, made in the image of the first. Sometimes there's talk of making proper bound copies, but this isn't the kind of thing we want widely distributed."  
  
"Indeed not," Fu agreed.  
  
"Um, am I missing something here?" Adrien piped up.  
  
"Sorry, lad." Tom set the box's lid down and gestured expansively. "Behold, the Codex of Getafix the Druid."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wasn't planning a follow-up for this, but the idea won't leave me alone.

"Is the monologuing really necessary?" Tikki complained, glaring at her captor through the bars of a cage of cold iron.

Gabriel gave her a stern look. "It would behoove you to refrain from being cheeky, my dear kwami," he said coldly. Then he allowed himself a small smile. "Besides, I _am_ a supervillain, albeit of the tragically misunderstood sort. Monologuing privileges come with the job."

"Tragically misunderstood my _arse_!" Tikki retorted, uttering her first real swearword in several centuries. "If this was just about Emilie then all you had to do was _ask_ Master Fu for his help. Did that even occur to you, or were you just having too much fun with the secret lair and the manaiacal laughter and all the other stupid theatrics? Okay, well done for finding something vaguely original to do with your mid-life crisis, but this stopped being amusing when people started getting hurt."

"The old saying about omlettes and eggs comes to mind," Gabriel replied smoothly. "Eat up, Nooroo. Adrien needs to come home in time for supper."

The butterfly kwami sighed heavily. "Yes, Master. Although I should point out that Adrien will be... well, quite upset with you."

"He'll get over it once he has his mother back."

Nooroo and Tikki shared a long-suffering look. "Just goes in one ear and out the other, doesn't it?" she said quietly.

"Oh yes. Believe me, I've tried and tried."

"When we get out here, I'm making Plagg give you lessons on malicious compliance."

"I _can_ hear you two, you know-"

 

With a tremendous crash, the window in the roof of Gabriel's supervillain lair exploded into tiny glittering shards as a huge and vaguely oblong shape crashed through it. Gabriel dived out of the way with a rather unmanly yelp and landed rather awkwardly on his rump, staring in horrified bewilderment at the huge, roughly-carved standing stone that had missed him by inches. "What the bloody hell-?"

_"Gabriel, you miserable son of a school disco dustbin baby and a Gendo Ikari cosplayer, when I get my hands on you I'm going to break your everything!"_ Tom Dupain bellowed from outside the front gate. _"And you'll still be lucky if I get to you before Adrien does!"_

"Wow, that was quick," Tikki remarked. "Master Fu must have had most of the ingredients on hand already; he keeps the most esoteric magical ingredients imaginable around in the back of the shop. And where on earth did Tom get a menihir on such short notice?"

Gabriel blinked. "Is there something you feel you ought to be telling me?"

Tikki smirked. "Well, Marinette's father grew up in a small village on the coast of _La Manche_ , in what used to be known as Armorica..." The look of dawning comprehension on Gabriel's face made up for a _lot_ of what she'd gone through today.

"The potion. The _magic potion_ ," Gabriel babbled. "He made _the_ magic potion. The potion of Getafix the Druid..."

Tikki's eyes hardened. "Your most recent akuma beat his only daughter so badly that she might never regain the full use of her dominant hand. The hand she needs to pursue her vocation as a designer, and secure her dream internship working for the famous fashion mogul _Gabriel Agreste_. Do you think there's anything he _wouldn't_ resort to in order to settle the score?"

Gabriel pondered this for a long moment. "Well, _shit_ ," he concluded.

 

And then a second menihir slammed through the tiles, took out a load-bearing joist and brought the roof in, and Gabriel's day just got worse from there.

**Author's Note:**

> You'd think there'd be more crossovers with Asterix the Gaul, really.


End file.
